中国历史—文化语境下“工艺”概念演化考辨

On the Evolution of the Concept of“Craft”in Chinese History-Culture

“工艺”一词学界聚讼难休,其内涵厘清至今未竞全功,将之置于中国历史—文化语境下进行察考在所必行。“艺”初为“祭农、减涝、祈丰收”之义,次为“栽种”,后引申泛指为现代认可的“种植”。周代以前“艺”字单用,春秋战国时期以后,与“材”“道”等字以“近义聚合”原则方始衍生合成词,其词语发展脉络与过程:艺——材艺——艺人艺事——道艺——术艺——艺术——工艺。现代研究一般认为“工艺”成词于唐代封演,似可商榷,至迟南北朝《宋书》已见,究其源头则在《尚书》“工执艺事”。古汉语一词多义现象较为普遍,将本源与历史流变勘明,则“工艺”涵义即可厘清为四:“工与艺(联合)”“工于艺(动宾)”“工巧之艺(偏正)”“百工技艺(偏正)”。

There are always controversies about the word“Craft”in academic circles,and its connotation is still unclear so far.So it’s very necessary to inspect it in the context of Chinese history-culture.The first meaning of“Art”(Yi)was“sacrifice farmers,reduce waterlogging,pray for a good harvest”,then“plant”and later extended to refer to planting in general,which was accepted by modern times.Before Zhou Dynasty,the word“art”was used singly,and then synthesized with“Material”and“Tao”according to the principle of“near-meaning aggregation”after Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.Its development vent is roughly as follows:Art(Yi)-Material Art-Artist,Art activity-Tao Art–Spell and Art-Art-Craft.It may be discussed that“craft”became a word and was performed in Tang Dynasty which is generally believed in modern research.At the latest,it had been seen in the Song Shu in Southern and Northern Dynasties,whose source was“the workers present the skills”.The phenomenon of polysemy in ancient Chinese is relatively common.By revealing the origin and historical evolution,the meaning of“craft”can be clarified into four parts:“skills and art(joint structure)”,“work in art(verb-object construction)”,“exquisite art(structure of modification)”and“baigong skills(structure of modification)”.